Rafael Nadal is World Number Two

Rafael Nadal is now the World Number Two after winning at the Cincinnati Open last weekend, and therefore pushes Andy Murray down to third in the world rankings.

This means that Andy Murray will be ranked third seed, as he attempts to successfully defend his US Open title in New York later this this month. The climb up the world rankings by the Spaniard has been astonishing, and reflects Nadal’s hunger to regain his standings before his knee injury that forced him out of the game for seven months. Since return to the game in February, Rafael has managed to reach the final in 11 out of 12 tournaments he has entered, getting his hands on nine trophies, with his only shock exit being at Wimbledon. Sports punters would now regard the World Number Two as the nearest thing to an online betting certainty!

Andy Murray slipped down the rankings as he failed to take advantage of his title win at Wimbledon and went out early in his follow up tournaments. As a result he slips down the rankings, but still has an impressive and enviable record of being in the final of the last four Grand Slams he has entered. Federer slips down to 7th from 5th in the world, but should be in with a strong chance of being able to take the last major of the year. And we should not forget that World Number One Novak Djokovic is still favourite to win the title.

Bookmakers are still pretty open on who is most likely to win, with Novak being just favourite at Paddypower priced at 15/8, with Murray and Nadal joint second favourites at 11/4. It will no doubt be anyone’s US Open this year, and it is expected to be a highly competitive tournament as long as we do not witness any shock exits in the early rounds. What will be very interesting is assessing the US Open draw which is set to place on Thursday.